Diary of Orrin Brown, Fayetteville, NC
Monday–Mar. 13th
We had a pretty cool night but it has been very warm through the day. Our regt. captured 30 rebs last night instead of two. We were relieved from the picket line about 2 PM and moved over onto another road about 2 miles west, and 3 regts. of our brig. are out about two miles on this road driving the rebs back. Or Brig. is made up of the 10th and 14th Mich, the 16th and 60th Ill. and the 17th N. Y. Youaves. We heard that the mail was up at Div. Hd. Q. tonight. I hope so for I am anxious to get it. I caught a very bad cold last night and an almost sick today. I read 4 Chapts. in the Testament today.
On the 13th, Sherman’s troops destroyed the Fayetteville Arsenal and Armory, established in 1838. Before they left town, the offices of the local newspapers—the Fayetteville Observer, Daily Telegraph and North Carolina Presbyterian—foundries, cotton mills, and several warehouses were destroyed, along with railroad facilities and gristmills (except for one to provide for the local citizens’ food). The site of the Arsenal was mostly obliterated in 1988 by a highway bypass.
Read More:
- Sherman’s March through North Carolina: A Chronology by Angley, Cross, and Hill (North Carolina Office of Archives and History, 1995)
- Sherman’s March Through the Carolinas by John Gilchrist Barrett (Univ North Carolina Press, 1956)
- Fierce Patriot: The Tangled Lives of William Tecumseh Sherman by Robert L. O’Connell (Random House, 2014)
- The March to the Sea and Beyond: Sherman’s Troops in the Savannah and Carolinas Campaigns by Joseph T. Glatthaar (New York University Press, 1985)
- The Memoirs Of General William T. Sherman by W.T. Sherman (Library of America, 1990)
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